Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

GotD. Brutish Gasbags. Useless bunch of inept tosspots. I'd get a more efficient service from a pile of parrot cack.

If I recall, BG fired many (all?) of their techs and rehired them under worse T&C. Over that period my boiler was serviced by 3rd party contractors (contracted to BG). Ever since I've felt that the boiler service was not as comprehensive as it used to be - it's quicker though. Previously, the eng would have it in pieces and perform many checks, even clambering into the attic to check flue path, now it's hook up a gauge, take a reading and you're done.

[Sir Trev]

I have refused to let British Gas into my house since (at my last address) we had issues withe pipes causing cold rads. Even I could see the pipes in the airing cupboard had been adapted so described the issue to them over the phone and asked if they could rectify it. The engineer turned up, said "that's not standard so I'm not going touch it", and then charged me a massive callout fee... Utter robbery.

An indie plumber charged half the Brit Gas cost to strip and clean the blockages, explaining it all so I knew what to look for in future.

[Seeker]

Air fryer part 3.
I ran the heating element standalone upto 250°C twice without any issues. So I tried the motor which spun up without any issues either so it's currently NFF (no fault found). I used to hate that when doing a service call because you knew it would come back, so I would change the part most likely to have caused it (if customer was on a service contract). In this instance I will reassemble the fryer and see what happens but I doubt I will ever use it inside my house!
My goto expression is: "if it was an aeroplane would you fly in it?"

Err, no, not this time.

[Seeker]

Smart phones. I freely admit I am a reluctant smart phone user and only have one for its phone capability, the "What3Words" app and occasionally the banking app. I find that Android is clunky, not intuitive (from a PC viewpoint) and now I find that my Motorola G50 currently stuck on Android s/w 12 cannot be updated to s/w 15 (the latest version), nor will it get security updates.

The phone is about 4 years old and that, apparently, is slightly above the life expectancy of a typical phone (typically 2.5-3 years). I have to reboot at least once a week for various reasons. Sluggish or no response, stuck apps etc.
In 2022 5.3 billion smart phones were estimated to be thrown away. This is just stupid.

[R1ffR4ff]

I've only ever used Android phones and even installed custom roms and find them easy to navigate. I got rid of my Broadband a couple of years ago so my Phone is used all day as my Wi-Fi Hotspot Tethered to my Laptop/PC and TV

Some tips. On a Motorola press and hold in the power button for around 10 seconds plus from time to time. This is a ,"Soft Reboot" that clears the ram and caches. Keeps the phones slick.

If you use a normal ," Nav Bar " at the bottom at least once a day tap on the recent apps list and clear them all. This stops them clogging up the system.

On a PC run the free ,"Privazer " deep cleaner,

https://privazer.com/en/download.php


1st run can take a while so go off and do something else. After that it will clean much faster.

I partition my drives and try to keep my system drive small and use the free ,"Macrium Reflect"


https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/det...e_edition.html

to backup onto my 2nd partition and keep an image copy on an old drive just-in-case. My boot sequence gives me the option to use a backup image or start Windows

[Seeker]

Pressing the power button on the G50 allows reboot or shutdown - I go there often.


I have 3 laptops and a desktop and don't have any problems with them other than a nagging suspicion that since upgrading my newest laptop to Win11 it's got slower.

[R1ffR4ff]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Pressing the power button on the G50 allows reboot or shutdown - I go there often.


I have 3 laptops and a desktop and don't have any problems with them other than a nagging suspicion that since upgrading my newest laptop to Win11 it's got slower.

Try holding in the power button until the phone restarts without using the options

I know what you mean about Win11. I didn't like it when it came with this refurb Dell Latitude so installed the last updated Win10 64 bit,

https://pureinfotech.com/windows-10-...creation-tool/

[Sir Trev]

Santander Cycles. Or rather, their app. What an utter pile of garbage.

Went on a reluctant trip to London yesterday for the annual lunch and drinking session with my old uni friends. It's a convenient location from a transport perspective but I dread it because of the transport, ironically. As most of us still work its always a Saturday, and no matter what time you travel the train is always overcrowded hell on the way in. Same on way back - crowded round a monitor waiting for the platform to be announced and then running down the length of the train along with three hundred others all hoping for a seat...

I also hate using the Tube, partly as I don't like crowds but there is also a lot of flu about right now. So I updated the Santander Cycles app on my phone the day before, made sure it had updated payment details on it, and planned my route. Only, it refused to work as I'm stood beside the e-bike I wanted to hire in a rack close to Marylebone Station. Re-entered my payment details (holding a phone and credit card openly in London is not always safe!) but it still didn't work. After much swearing I walked the route instead. Note, you can only hire the e-bikes via the app, so the terminal at the docking station is no use, and as the older manual bikes are rubbish I did not want to use those.

The only upside is my Fitbit registered over 16,000 steps for the day. And my knees know it today.

[garynortheast]

Down with stinker of a cold and hoping it's going to break soon. I have meeting in Newtown on Wednesday morning, to which I am hoping to go on the bike. However, if I feel like this on Wednesday I will either do it via teams, or give my apologies and not attend at all.

[redtrummy]

Could I trouble you to sign this please https://act.38degrees.org.uk/act/-do...ign=blast89085